The Los Angeles-based Lula Washington Dance
Theatre begins an East coast tour on Feb. 13 at the Rose Lehrman
Arts Center. With choreography that mixes athleticism, performance art, jazz,
ballet and street dance, the ensemble's intention is to reflect the culture and
history of the African-American experience.

How does that translate into what you can see when
they come to Harrisburg? That's what I asked Tamica Washington-Miller,
associate director, when I spoke to her by phone. She's the daughter of founder and artistic director
Lula Washington and Erwine Miller, the executive director. It's a family
affair, she said.

Normally Washington-Miller also dances in the
ensemble, but a torn Achilles tendon will keep her in Los Angeles for this
tour. She grew up in the 33-year old ensemble, originally founded to provide a
creative outlet for minority dance artists in South Los Angeles, according to
their website.

She talked about the "movement vocabulary" her choreographer mother has developed over the decades. She taps into "a sense
of rawness to make a point, to express an emotion or feeling."

The dancers have strong ballet and modern dance
technique, maintained while blending in elements of African and Caribbean dance
and "street movement."

"We must not be so pulled up that we can't get
down," she said, meaning that technique can't get in the way of the organic, "pedestrian"
movement that characterizes Washington's choreography -- "beautiful human beings
dancing the African-American experience."

Costumes, for example, can be flowery patchwork
halter dresses for women and jeans plus white tank tops for the
men. The outfits let audiences connect easily to the story being told by the
dance, while clearly revealing the physical lines of the dancers.

One work of the six on the program in Harrisburg
is called "We Wore the Mask." It "celebrates the removal of old masks that were
once needed to survive in America. A new face is revealed, full of vivacity,
energy, soul, spirit, fire, beauty and creativity," according the program
notes.

Though culturally specific to the United States,
Washington-Miller said that the subject matter of "We Wore the Mask" has more
to do with the human condition than the African-American experience.

"American Gothic" is one of several photos by Gordon Parks now on display at Lebanon Valley College.

The Dance Theatre just returned from its second
Russian tour, and Washington-Miller described the reaction of audiences who
might not have an easy cultural connection to the subject matter. "They got it,
they understood it," she said. Tears and laughter were among the appreciative
responses of Chinese and Russian audiences.

The music used in their dances ranges from
purpose-built drum sets to Philip Glass, from Roberta Flack to James Brown. The
universality of that music helps to bridge the cultural gap, she said. Music
and movement evoke memory and emotion beyond social and cultural context.

"We dance, not from a black place, but from a
human place," she said.

Parks exhbit

You have until March 17 to see the
not-to-be-missed Gordon Parks photography exhibit at the Suzanne H. Arnold
Gallery at Lebanon Valley College. Parks was the first African-American
photographer to break the color barrier at a major magazine, and his brilliant photo-journalistic
essays for "Life" in the 1960s succeeded in disseminating information about the
social and cultural changes in our country to a wide audience.

The exhibit shows many of Parks's iconic
photographs from that era, as well as celebrity portraits of people like
Langston Hughes and Duke Ellington. You can also see some of his more abstract
experimental works from the 1950s, when he used techniques unique to that time
period, according to Dr. Barbara McNulty, the director of the gallery.

Events held in conjunction with this exhibit
include a Feb. 7 lecture by Parks's friend, painter and photographer Adger
Cowans and a daylong workshop by Guggenheim fellow Carl Socolow entitled
"Photographing our Times: The Lyrical in the Banal."

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